Denial and Silence

The Warriors are 5-10. If they don’t start winning a bunch of games in a hurry, odds on a playoff appearance will go from long to impossible. In the midst of these struggles, their playoff-guaranteeing coach is denying there’s any need for concern and their playoff-guaranteeing owner has gone silent. For Warriors fans, it’s a familiar and frustrating combination.

For those who missed it on Sunday, Matt Steinmetz delivered an aggressive, telling interview with the man the Warriors hired for his eternal optimism. It’ll come as no surprise that Mark Jackson is still feeling good about this team. With the Warriors’ season hanging in the balance on this home-stand, he needs to stay positive to keep them focused and disciplined. That said, his comments on why he’s not worried go far beyond don’t-trash-your-own-guys, “we’ve-got-work-to-do” territory and land squarely in the realm of talking-point delusions. The full interview is well worth a read, but here’s the core:

Question: Somebody asked me the other day about you and I said that reality might be setting in with this team, that you might be realizing this team isn’t as good as you thought. Would that be incorrect?

Jackson: I guess you lied to them. … What is reality?

Question: That this team isn’t as good as you thought … That this team can’t be as good as you thought.

Jackson: No, that’s not true. In my opinion we have the best backcourt in the business, we have an all-star caliber power forward, we have solid role players, and we are a defensive-minded basketball team. We are grinding and we’ve been in position to win in eight of our 10 losses and we’ve beaten some of the best in the land. The reality is that we’re very close to being who I am convinced we are. Tell your friend I said ‘hi.’ … You are trying today.

Question: Not at all, let’s cut to the chase. You’ve been optimistic about this team but you’re 5-10. This is a region that has seen it and heard it all before and you talking like this is like a salmon swimming upstream. You’re fighting conventional wisdom. Some fans are saying this is no different than before.

Jackson: We’re getting after it. We’re battling, we’re a defensive-minded basketball team. We’re a professional basketball team and we have no quit. We’re a no-excuses team even when excuses have been there for the taking. It is a different basketball team, no question about it. Very easily we could make excuses. Even that salmon swimming upstream would tell you that it’s different.

Mark Jackson hasn’t been around the Bay Area long enough to know how many times Warriors fans have been fed these exact same lines, but at the very least he could show a hint of understanding why fans might be frustrated with a team once again stuck in the NBA cellar with no clear road to improvement. Fans are frustrated because they see a coach accepting as adequate the very same “best backcourt in the business” and “all-star caliber power forward” who have yet to get the Warriors anywhere. The Warriors have shown flashes of being an improved defensive team, but their effort and focus in the past few games look just like past years. They are relying on the same lost causes (Ellis isolations), band-aids (zone defenses) and PR spin (“they were in the game until [insert Warriors’ mistake here]”). Even their record after 15 games is identical to (08-09, 09-10) or worse than (10-11, 07-08, 06-07, 05-06) the prior six seasons.

Outside of the eternal sunshine of Mark Jackson’s mind, the Warriors need to take a major step forward immediately or their playoff dreams are done — if they aren’t done already. Right now, the 8th team in the Western Conference has a .563 win percentage. In the last 4 years, it’s taken better than a .561 win percentage in the Western Conference to make the playoffs. For the Warriors to hit that mark given their 5-10 start, it’ll take a 32-19 (.627) finish to their season. Even the 8th team sneaks into this year’s playoffs with the .512 win percentage the Warriors managed in 06-07 (the lowest playoff qualifying win percentage in the West in the past 10 years), it’ll take a record of 29-22 (.568) for the Warriors to get there.

Playing near .600 basketball for the remainder of the season isn’t impossible — but I’m hard-pressed to imagine those types of wins coming so long as this team sticks with the status-quo. If they’re going to have any chance at all, the team needs to capitalize on this massive home-stand (9 out of the next 11 in Oakland). If they can win 7 or 8 of those 11 games, then maybe they can keep hope alive a little longer. But just going 5-6 or 6-5 isn’t going to cut it when the team then has to play 24 of its final 40 games on the road.

For Mark Jackson, the first quarter of the lockout-shortened season has been a rude-but-accurate introduction to life with the Warriors. This fanbase has seen more busted promises of improved defense than we can count. We’ve had old-school and new-school coaches, inspirational storytellers, former players, disciplinarians and father figures. They’ve all taken us to the same inglorious place. Our road to the draft lottery is littered with good intentions, so Jackson shouldn’t take Warriors’ fans skepticism personally (if/when he finally admits that such skepticism exists). It’s just the lesson we’ve learned over these hard, barren years.

For owner Joe Lacob — whose “we’re all about winning” quotation appears to have been pulled recently from the Warriors website banner — the response to these struggles has also been discomfortingly familiar. He’s gone underground. At least as far as I can tell, the last public statements he made about the team were in a radio interview on December 21, 2011 — the day Monta Ellis (along with Lacob and the team) were sued for sexual harassment. It was Lacob who championed the idea that a core of Stephen Curry, Monta Ellis and David Lee was good enough, green-lit sacrificing the amnesty on a long-shot attempt to land DeAndre Jordan and continues to employ Larry Riley. If the Warriors fail once again this year — as they have so far — it’s on Joe Lacob. It remains to be seen whether he’ll answer for it, but we sure aren’t hearing anything right now.

Worst game ever. Nearly left Snoracle early due to the almost mathematically insurmountable 17 pt lead with 7:30 left. Stayed to watch the W’s run some clock, work it inside and finish. No, seriously, I stayed as I could feel the air hissing out of this old bald tire. I never would’ve guessed I would witness yet another Ellis last possession fail.

Trade them. Trade them all!!

Tarheel Warrior

Tomorrow Wikipedia will have this new entry under MASOCHIST:

— Any fan of the Golden State Warriors.

Believe?????

SOFT TEAM

SOFT CURRY

SOFT GUARDS

SOFT COACH:

I GUESS WE NEED CURRY SO BADLY WE ARE 1-6 NOW WITH HIM IN THE LINEUP:

NICE TAKING CHARGE COACH BY BENCHING NATE ROBINSON:

I GUESS CURRY AND MONTA ARE SO TOUGH WITH THE BALL THAT THEY COUGHED IT UP IN CRUNCH TIME:

CURRY LOOKED SO GOOD ON THOSE SHOTS……YET WENT 0-5 DOWN THE MOST IMPORTANT STRETCH WHEN THEY REALLY NEEDED A BASKET.

THIS TEAM IS A JOKE

Believe?????

anyone know of any elite guards in the league that don’t even get one frikin free throw attempt in one game?

the guy is such a great player and future star that he can’t even summon one free throw: hey fitzgerald???? since you love talking numbers during the game repeatedly keep talking about how many free throws you bed buddy curry attempted tonight

Believe?????

without curry 4-5

with curry 1-6

can you say trend?

Believe?????

Andris Biedrins 15lbs???

really paying off there….

why in the world would we want to amnesty a 7 footer that scores less points than fouls???

this guy is such a valued asset why in the world would we want to use his 9 million as part of a packaged trade?

TruthDrink

Does Steph Curry have any guts are heart?

Does he ever try and at least act like he wants to buckle down and play some defense:

oh wait…i guess that’s david lee’s fault

let’s blame everything on david lee?

the only tough guy who night in and night out has to guard the biggest and most toughest player on the opposing team….since he’s got a bunch of lightweight lilliputians running around the three point line with no clue how to get to the line

TruthDrink

Can we just blackout warrior games and show reruns of the run tmc days?

dr_john

I just hope Adam’s next recap does not start with a 911 call.

monsta

dr j, adams lede:

The gods had condemned Sisyphus to ceaselessly rolling a rock to the top of a mountain, whence the stone would fall back of its own weight. They had thought with some reason that there is no more dreadful punishment than futile and hopeless labor.
Albert Camus

SJ Jim

In addition to that mind-numbingly stupid 3 point hero “throw” from the corner with Marc Gasol in his face, I’m still seeing visions of three or four turnovers Monta made or caused in the late going. And people are singling out Curry? Not saying Curry was good, but please. This was a GROUP bonehead effort, and if anybody led the bonehead charge with the bonehead flag, it was Ellis (and let’s not forget who has more NBA experience under his belt, including playoff experience).

coltraning

Oh well, could be worse. We could be Kyle Williams right now! Or any of Newt Gingrich’s wives!

Marquee Jackson

This team is a disaster! I was a Warrior fan and there I’ve said it!!

This team has fallen worse than when Nellie and Smart were here. Two meltdowns in a row (Griz) included. Jackson got out coached by Lionel Hollins – what a mess.

Jackson may not last this season. Bring back Nellie so we can at least have fun while loosing.

Bryhsiao

I will say it first here.
I liked how we played up to that 20 points lead.
When we let Monta play off the ball Most of the time until the forth qtr.
As I have sad before Monta needs a screen to shed his defender and Mark Jackson designed one for him by letting Curry pick Allen early.

It made the game much easier for Monta ad everyone else until the fourth qtr Monta tried to go 1on1 against Allen. Or when he could not shed Allen by himself and came out with Allen right on him.

Curry’s two late turnovers were careless pass to Lee where Gay just overplayed.
And after monta threw ball away a couple times, curry took the ball and tried to calm down and then somehow jump in the air and passes to intercepting Tony Allen.

I have to say Mark Jack did a great job in the first 3qtrs by minimizing Monta’s 1on N and encoraging crisp ball movement.
The fourth, I think he paniced as well as our team did. (Not our Our Team here of course)

He should send Nate for Monta/curry or at least call a time out to make sure Monta get a screen first before catching the ball.

But from his post game comment , he literally called out our backcourt doing freestyle and got away from the game plan.

I believe he is calling out The team not patient enough to set a screen for Monta and Monta wanted to get the ball to go 1on1 in the end.

A bad game but hopefully they understand now that they could okay beautiful basketball if they play 48 mins like the first 36mins. No more 1 against the world anymore.

Mark jack at least had the cajone to do this as we suggested. I gave him my kudos but all other things are still fair to criticism.

You guys can jump in now

coltraning

By my count now, Ellis’s moronic and conscienceless play at the end of games has cost the Warriors very gettable wins against Utah New Jersey Indiana and Memphis. And the beat rolls on! Pay no attention to the selfish, self-centered ball hog behind the curtain

dr_john

Hey here’s a clue Mark—

Play ’em more than 30 minutes = minus points.

Meritocracy my arse, but I’ve posted that about a few other recent coaches.

Coach says what you want to hear—but let the players just run around as they wish.

dr_john

I’m glad we don’t have any excuses for this.

Geno

Sooooo Jackson, what’s the ETA on that “accountability” you spoke of? 12 TO’s by your back court? If that’s not enough to make the accountability kick in, what’s the magic number?

Biedrins is still soft
Lee is a stat stuffer and nothing else
0 FT attempts by Curry? Really?
Wright is a shadow of himself from last year

Iggy for Monta sounds reaaal good right now
Team defense is still a joke when it matters most

Udoh constantly reminds us all he is no Greg Monroe
Playoffs? (Insert Jim Mora soundbyte here)

TruthDrink

WE WILL TRADE MONTA ELLIS:

HE WILL BECOME A PLAYOFF CONTENDER AND WE WILL BE LEFT WITH STEPH CURRY……I GUARD THAT IS A SHADOW OF A THE PLAYER ELLIS IS?

THIS IS WHY THE WARRIORS AND THE FANS CONTINUE TO TORTURE THEMSELVES AND ARE BLIND TO REALITY..

I AM TRYING TO HELP YOU PEOPLE:

STEPH CURRY IS A WOOSE AND WILL NEVER EVER IN HIS LIFETIME BE THE 15TH BEST YET ALONE 20TH BEST POINT GUARD IN THE LEAGUE

that’s the number of free throws curry attempted as you went to the hoop and got his crap thrown because he can’t finish

yet this is the guard of our future

i love it

keep up your torture

jerry

hopefully one step closer to the draft!

The Oracle

TW

Didn’t Memphis also build through the draft?
Isn’t Minny also building through the draft?
And Cleveland?
And NOH?
And Utah?

And many others. Teams know they have to rebuild when they are in the W’s situation. Just not the W’s. Seems like every other team has already gone through the process or is in the process. But we are stuck in NBA purgatory, not enough talent or foundation pieces to go to the playoffs, but not bad enough to get a franchise changing pick, unless you count #6 Udoh.

If you look at the trade part of many of those transactions, they were also probably trading players they acquired in the draft for other players also.

Blow it up.

dr_john

I don’t want to be one step closer to the draft. Only the 4 worst will be guaranteed to be in the 1-7 range anyway. Historically, if the Warriors finish 6th or 7th they will probably lose the pick anyway.

I just want to be shed of this backcourt forever and ever and ever

Ellis for Mayo and Thabeet would have been so f#ckin* sweet, Hasheem would not be picked up, so much good would have transpired. Stupid Indiana yeah, they tried to send McRoberts for Mayo and the NBA scr@w*d them on a clock technicality so they had to send the rights to Kawhi Leonard to SA for Hill because they ACTUALLY KNEW what sort of TEAM and CHEMISTRY they were trying to build.

And we’re being ripped apart again debating the recent Don Nelson versus the young Don Nelson?

Shitcan this backcourt.

dr_john

I am in moderation because, I think, I used an unfortunate word about what to do with our backcourt.

Sorry.

The Oracle

Kyle Williams made two critical mistakes, but you can’t put the entire loss on him.

We had two interceptions that we didn’t get because 49er players knocked the ball loose from their own teammate.

What were we 1-13 on third down conversions? How many passes to a WR in the game? 1 for 3 yards?

SJ Jim

“Curry’s two late turnovers were careless pass to Lee where Gay just overplayed…”

Jim Barnett was right. That turnover was just as much on Lee. He had to feel Gay behind him, and he had to shield Gay while coming toward Curry to get the ball. He did neither. At any rate, that wasn’t the worst of the turnovers we made. Ellis had two on consecutive possessions, including one where he left his feet and had nobody to pass to.

The Oracle

Curry is careless with the ball. ME is just not a good passer.

dr_john

Clean version:

I don’t want to be one step closer to the draft. Only the bottom 4 picks will guarantee the dubs 1-7 pick. Historically, if the Warriors finish 6th or 7th they will probably lose their pick anyway.

I just want to be shed of this backcourt forever and ever and ever….

Ellis for Mayo and Thabeet would have been so sweet. Thabeet would be gone off the books, so many good things would have happened. Indiana tried to send McRoberts for Mayo because they knew what they wanted to build and the NBA hung them on a clock technicality. So they traded the rights to Kawhi Leonard to SA for Hill because both teams knew what they were after, TEAM and CHEMISTRY.

Get rid of this backcourt—it can NEVER work.

Rowell The Weasel

Same old Warriors…Over Promise Under deliver…
Classic way to run a busines…Dont these guys understand that every loss is a win for thr future of this team…David lee is the most over paid role player in the league and Curry and monta couldnt guard their own shadows…I didnt hear Harbough promising the playoffs…To all Warriors front office leadership get a shrink!…And get over all your deluded omnipetence…

dr_john

Something is shrinking Joe

Like a winter dip in the Bay

Man up, hand up

SJ Jim

“Curry is careless with the ball. ME is just not a good passer.”

Not to defend Curry’s carelessness, and I’m not saying Ellis is a good passer, but when a guy (Ellis) repeatedly drives into traffic, jumps into the air, and has nowhere to go with the ball, isn’t that being careless too? To me, it’s boneheaded. And let’s be honest here- Ellis had 7 TO’s (including two on consecutive possessions) to Curry’s 5 (one of which was just as much Lee’s fault).

That fourth quarter was a meltdown of epic proportions. As bad as our players were, I can’t get over how calm Jackson looked through the whole thing, and how he didn’t seem too interested in stopping the game and getting the team re-focused. I actually appreciate coaches (in any sport) that are composed and don’t do a lot of ranting and raving, but… I’m not so sure that the fourth quarter tonight didn’t call for some ranting and raving.

Allen

Geno,

I see what you did there. BLOW IT UP anagram style.

Biedrins is still soft
Lee is a stat stuffer and nothing else
0 FT attempts by Curry? Really?
Wright is a shadow of himself from last year

Iggy for Monta sounds reaaal good right now
Team defense is still a joke when it matters most

Udoh constantly reminds us all he is no Greg Monroe
Playoffs? (Insert Jim Mora soundbyte here)

I concur too BTW.

Tired

Yep, David Lee should play more center. He has handled Howard and all the best centers. Yup.

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

Small ball strikes again. Hey Jax. you’re throwing the game away. Do something smart. Oh well….. Not even a time out? Really?

Curry should have been taken out. Too tired to finish. Not back in shape yet. Pathetic defense.

Monta, well, what can one say? He giveth and he taketh away. Mondo bizarro game for him. I had a friend over who had a lot of fun playing my favorite Ws watching game- “Who is Monta Guarding Now?” He said he looked like a free safety in a football game. I told him that that was my first thought as well, years ago.

I guess you might say we didn’t match up well with this team. They played around until the 4th quarter and then kicked our ass.

MVP = Tony Allen, who single handedly turned the game around by stopping both Monta and Curry at various times, plus forcing bad passes. He is really something.

Our starters suck. No D. Predictable offense. Hey, when we go small with Lee, all bets are off.

Sub team did a good job in the first half.

I loved it at the end when Curry and Monta had all those passes intercepted because they always do the very same thing out on the left wing. The last time, the guy just stepped in front and went down and laid it up. that kind of summed it up.

I was thinking when we were way ahead that maybe Tyler would get some minutes. Why not? But then, we don’t need to be developing a young big man. I know he is very raw, but in a running game that was working at the time, he might have done OK. Anyway, pretty soon we will be so far down the standings that he will probably get more minutes. Right now we need to WIN!

TheCity

Meir @ 108, 109, 120 and 121

Nice try, meir. (you made a mistake an revealed yourself, bet you can’t even figure it out, lol!)

“Truth Drink” my azz,.

Fire Bob Fitzgerald

Great post at #22!

RickP

We’ve lost 10 games and I would say two teams beat us…Every other game we were in control with a real opportunity of closing the door and we did not. So that is extremely encouraging.”…Mark Jackson

Sounds like an excuse to me. It’s somehow supposed to make us feel better that the team almost won.

The fact is, that’s the way bad teams lose.

What I’m wondering is if we’ll ever get to hear Jackson apologize to Keith Smart. I thought Jackson’s preseason remarks were quite insulting to Smart. Jackson seemed quite confident that he could do better.

But, it seems to me we’re seeing more bonehead play and more bonehead coaching this season.

jsl

Col @90 and Bry @115: PODs. Nicely done, guys.

TruthDrink and Believe???: Keep taking those “Meir pills,” Bozos.

thewarriorsrule

in reference to the interview, mark jackson reminds me of that guy ‘wimp lo’ in the movie kung pao where he thinks that ‘losing’ is ‘winning’. get a grip of reality. you are 5-11! shut your mouth